Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Business update

lord henley: My hon Friend,the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Small Business, Consumers and Corporate Responsibility (Andrew Griffiths)has today made the following statement:Under section 2 of the Immigration Act 2016 the Director of Labour Market Enforcement is required to prepare an annual strategy which, once approved, must be laid before Parliament.The Director of Labour Market Enforcement is a statutory appointment under the Immigration Act 2016. The Director is responsible for setting the strategic priorities of the three existing enforcement agencies. These are the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, and HMRC’s National Minimum Wage enforcement team.Professor Sir David Metcalf CBE was appointed as the Director on 1 January 2017. Sir David's introductory independent labour market enforcement strategy was published in July 2017 and today this second strategy is being published. This strategy provides a valuable assessment of the existing scale of labour exploitation and makes 37 recommendations on labour market enforcement and raising awareness of employment rights.There is significant crossover and alignment between this strategy and the government's response to the Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices and subsequent consultations. The government will publish a response to the Director of Labour Market Enforcement's strategy later this year, once the consultations have closed and the government has considered the responses.The government's Good Work Plan is a vital part of the Industrial Strategy, the long-term plan to build a Britain fit for the future by helping businesses create better, higher-paying jobs in every part of the UK.I would like to place on record my thanks to Sir David and his team for the hard work that has gone into this second strategy.Copies of the strategy have been laid before both Houses.


This statement has also been made in the House of Commons: 
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Department for Education

Strengthening Qualified Teacher Status and Improving Career Progression for Teachers Consultation: Government Response

lord agnew of oulton: My right honourable friend the Minister of State for School Standards (Nick Gibb) has made the following written ministerial statement.On Friday 4 May 2018, the Government published its response to the recent consultation on ‘Strengthening Qualified Teacher Status and Improving Career Progression for Teachers’.This consultation closed on 8 March, and had over 2,000 written responses. The majority of responses agreed with the case to strengthen support that teachers receive in the early stages of their career. This is in addition to finding more effective ways of enabling teachers to access high quality Continuing Professional Development throughout their careers.The Government response sets out how we will take this work forward, including:Increasing the length of the induction period for teachers from one year to two years;Developing an Early Career Framework of support and mentoring, which will create a better and more consistent induction experience for all new teachers;Exploring the creation of new qualifications for experienced classroom teachers, alongside work to consider how we can make the existing Continuing Professional Development market easier to navigate for schools and teachers; and,Piloting a sabbatical fund for experienced teachers.As this work is developed further, we will work with teachers, school leaders, and education experts. We will also ensure that improving continuing professional development for teachers aligns closely with wider work on the recruitment and retention of teachers.The response is available on gov.uk and I will place a copy in the House Libraries.



Government Response: Strengthening QTS
(PDF Document, 644.77 KB)





This statement has also been made in the House of Commons: 
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Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Housing First

lord bourne of aberystwyth: My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (James Brokenshire), has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement.Today, the Government is launching three Housing First pilots in Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, and the Liverpool City Region. The programme will total £28 million of Government funding and include a robust external evaluation. The funding allocated to each region is as follows, and is based on the number of rough sleepers, or those at risk of rough sleeping who we think would benefit from a Housing First approach:Greater Manchester: £8.0mLiverpool City Region: £7.7mWest Midlands: £9.6mThe pilots will support c.1000 rough sleepers and those at risk of rough sleeping with the most complex needs to help them to end their homelessness. People will be provided with stable, affordable accommodation and intensive wrap-around support. This will help them to recover from complex issues, such as substance abuse and mental health difficulties, and sustain their tenancies.There is a growing body of international evidence supporting a Housing First approach as a way to ending rough sleeping, but to date this has not been rigorously evaluated on a large scale in the UK. Today’s announcement is a demonstration of this Government’s support for evidence-based approaches that have the potential to radically improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our society. The Government will carefully consider the evidence that is gathered to inform any expansion of Housing First.Piloting Housing First gives effect to a manifesto commitment and is an important element of the Government’s effort to end rough sleeping by 2027. It will build on the implementation of the Homelessness Reduction Act, and the new Rough Sleeping Initiative my predecessor announced on 30 March. The Government will bring forward a Rough Sleeping Strategy in July that sets out how we intend to first halve and then end rough sleeping in 2022 and 2027.


This statement has also been made in the House of Commons: 
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